


Eternal Winter

by Galrafloofandlove



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Frostbite, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, M/M, Missions Gone Wrong, amputation mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 08:27:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19422241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galrafloofandlove/pseuds/Galrafloofandlove
Summary: Keith crashes on a snow planet after a Blade mission fails.With no food.Or water.Or safe shelter.And his suit ripped and mask broken.Hypothermia is just waiting to take him away.





	Eternal Winter

**Author's Note:**

> Completely self-indulgent. Soft Sheith and a little team as family at the end!

There were a million other planets he could have made an emergency landing on. 

Only around a hundred of them out of the millions were as bad as this one.  
Couldn't be more than a 0.01 percent that he got so unlucky, if Keith was doing his panic division equations right. 

And he was the only survivor of the failed mission.

And the Blade wasn't coming to save him. 

He was stuck, after haphazardly crash landing after his fuel ran out. The only surviving ship was the one he just made into a useless pile of metal, and it only had half a tank in it. Enough to flee the scene, but not enough to get to another Blade base or the Castle. 

Trying to land in the Castle might have been trouble, through. A Galra cruiser coming in a time when Zarkon is missing in action could cause panic before Keith could hail the control room.

His suit was torn around his right hand, the entirety of the fabric gone from his wrist down and a large rip trailing up to his elbow. The protective double layer on his wrist and elbows that was made out of some old metal, had been mercilessly cut off by Galra soldiers in the struggle, the laser guns striking both dead on and causing cracks that eventually caused them to fall off. If not for the pads, he'd be bleeding out on the floor of a Galra base right now. Pieces of the suit were lost all the time in missions, hence why every base just has a bunch of storage rooms filled with extra suits and armor of all sizes. 

So, his right hand was bare. 

And he crashed onto a snowy planet. 

During a blizzard. 

With a broken ship and no water or food. 

Hypothermia was awaiting, like a harsh gust of wind waiting for the right moment to knock him off his feet. 

The ship was currently bundled under a pile of snow at an angle, some of the powderly chill seeping through the cracks and invading his ship slowly, like some sort of deadly snail species. 

He could climb out from the tail end, since it seemed to have reached the surface. He could try and open a crack in the metal with his knife, which could take a bit. Best to start now, with the snow piling in even more by the ticks. If he waited much longer to plan his escape, he'd be frozen before he could execute it. 

He gripped his blade tight, pulling it off his holster and feeling it awaken in his grip. The awakened blade could grip into things better, better pull things apart than his other knives. 

He made quick work of slicing a thin cut in the metal of the back of the ship, just deep enough to see the blizzard raging on outside.  
With a bit more strength and a few more cuts, there was a hole big enough for Keith to climb out of. 

Immediately, the harsh flakes raining down attacked Keith's bare skin- his face, his neck, and of course, his exposed hand. The chill bit at the rip in his suit, seemingly trying to nudge it into splitting open completely. When he tried to activate his mask, nothing happened. Technical malfunction. It could happen if the weather conditions prevented the technology in the suit to not work, or if the mask couldn't find a place to appear within the snow hitting his bare face, stinging him like a swarm of angry wasps. His hood had been thrown off of his head from the intense wind, and was now flying behind him, not protecting anything. 

His ebony locks had a million little snowflakes stuck into the strands, his face wet with both tears of pain and snow. 

Keith wrapped his arms against his chest, gritted his teeth, and started to trudge through the thick layer of snow coating the ground. A lake would be good, maybe some smaller animals, a cave for a little shelter until the storm passed. He could barely see anything in the total white out, legs growing sore from going against the parade of snow flying at them from the opposite direction, and the impossibly insane amount of snow he had to go through just to move. It didn't look like much, but the snow itself was so thick it made all the difference. 

The wind came into play suddenly, hurling massive amounts of chilling gusts against Keith's already freezing hand and face. Pins and needles shot through his bare fingers, and it felt like little crystals of ice were forming on his hand. On his cheeks, too- he'd be lying if he said his face and hand were the only parts that were freezing, but it was better to focus on the pain of one or two things rather than your entire body feeling like an ice pop. 

He was shivering now, shaking as the wind and snow continued to assault his face. The wind was at such a high speed Keith was afraid he'd be blown away if one foot wasn't always planted into the ground.  
His vision started to go blurry. He couldn't see anything but white before, but now everything looked as if he'd just put the quality of his vision into 144p.  
His breathing grew shallow as a gray blur appeared closer to Keith than he expected. A large, snowy rock was cut on the inside to reveal a small hideaway, a tiny cave where Keith could rest. 

And he was so tired. 

He laid down on the dirty floor when he entered the alcove. It was wet from melted snow, the blizzard leaving a few snowflakes along the cave's entrance. 

Keith cuddled his frozen hand to his armored chest, now looking extremely pale, just a few shades from the white snow that had been tormenting him since arrival, as he drifted off on the cold, damp floor of the makeshift shelter. 

~~~~~~~

He woke up to his name being shouted. 

He was shaking, shivering, freezing. His little nap had gone on longer than he had wanted, evident by how much more cold he felt and how all feeling in his hand melted away. It was numb, and he couldn't move it. He could move his elbow, barely, but not any muscles in his hand. Wrist was numb, fingers were numb….

He'd have to cut it off if help didn't come soon. 

"Keith!" 

A loud voice boomed from a little away. 

"I'm coming. I'm coming, Keith, don't worry." 

Shiro. 

How- how'd he find Keith so quickly? There was no tracker on the Blade suit. The Blade would never tell that Keith had gone missing or was presumed dead. 

Keith didn't turn his head to look. No energy to. He just stared at the cave ground, the gray covering of shelter on the curved walls. 

Strong, warm arms wrapped around his torso and waist and picked him up. Keith desperately curled up into Shiro's familiar warmth, upset by the chilly chestplate of the paladin armor that prevented Keith to cuddle on Shiro's chest.

"Keith, baby, can you speak?" Shiro said, worried. Of course he was worried. One of Shiro's fears was losing Keith once he finally realized his feelings, once he could finally kiss Keith and tell him how much he loved him.  
"'m so'ry." Keith slurred as Shiro began to walk out of the cave. Shiro cradled Keith's head in one big hand, pushing him closer to Shiro's chest and protecting him from the blizzard raging on.  
"Don't be. There's blankets in Black. Clean clothes. Coran says he has something to help frostbite. You'll be okay." Shiro shouted so Keith could hear him over the whistle of the wind. 

Neither of them spoke until Shiro walked into Black, her purring becoming present in Keith's mind. 

She shut her jaw once Shiro was safely inside with Keith, and the snow and wind and torture were gone.  
Black was warm. She felt like a beach, like she was trying to give them a sunburn. 

But to Keith? 

It was heaven. 

Shiro laid him down on one of the benches in the cockpit, placed a thick, fluffy blanket over his body, and placed the back of his hand on Keith's forehead. 

"Hypothermia." Shiro said, like he was a licensed doctor diagnosing him.  
"Th'ank, Shr-Sher-Sherlock." Keith stuttered out, voice still slurred and soft as feeling returned to his lips. They were still cold, but it wasn't as difficult to talk as before. 

Shiro leaned down and kissed him. It was quick, but it was nice. It was warm. Warm seemed to be the only word in Keith's vocabulary right now. 

As Shiro pulled away, he said "We can warm those beautiful lips up a bit." 

"I'm f-fine." Keith replied, pretending as if he didn't enjoy the feeling of Shiro's lips on his. 

"Of course, baby. I'm going to get us back to the Castle." Shiro said, then started to walk away. 

Keith whined. Unintentionally, but it did end up working in his favor. 

Shiro turned around, smiled, and picked Keith up again. 

For the entire ride home, Keith shared the pilot's chair with Shiro. A blanket over them both, Shiro's artificial hand on its lowest heating setting enclosing Keith's right hand, thawing it a bit before they arrived at the Castle. 

Coran took Keith away when Black pulled into the hangar. He had mostly drifted off by then, occasionally waking up to see Coran wrapping up Keith's frozen hand in light blue gauze with Shiro holding Keith's other hand, some sort of large, glass box heating device thing with Keith's right hand inside warming him up through the bandages. Heating packs on his forehead, Altean electric heating blankets piled on him. Somewhere along the way, he was changed into a sweater and sweatpants and warm, cozy socks and out of the cold and wet blade suit. 

Shiro was always there. 

And that set Keith's worries away completely. 

~~~~~~~

When the hypothermia had passed, he was moved out of the medbay. 

He was given his old room back for recovery. He contacted Kolivan and informed him that he was alive. Hunk constantly brought him warm drinks that tasted like cinnamon and chocolate, and Shiro came to cuddle in his free time. Pidge had engineered a great heating system just for his hand, and Lance had some extra pajamas in his room. Allura gave him old Altean fairytale books with a translator to keep him from dying of boredom. 

The bandages had to stay on his hand for a while. It was confirmed that his frostbite on the fingers might have required amputation if Shiro hadn't found him when he did, so Keith was still at a high risk. 

But he was alive. 

And with his family. 

And that, after the hypothermia has passed, is all the warmth needed for proper healing.

**Author's Note:**

> I forgot to say this in the fic because this was written at midnight and published as is but Shiro found Keith because Black alerted him to Keith's dangerous situation and his location (both in the universe and on the planet) and all Shiro had to do was get Allura to wormhole the Castle near the Planet and get Keith. Keith drifted off for about four hours, since hypothermia causes intense fatigue. Altean technology was able to heat him back up, but he needed recovery to get back to being completely okay and heal from it all, both the hypothermia and the frostbite. It was severe on his hand, minor/medium on his cheeks and forehead and they were all properly reheated! Yay future alien technology! 
> 
> Black loves both Keith and Shiro and you can't convince me otherwise.  
> [Tumblr](https://galrafloofandlove.tumblr.com)! || [Twitter](https://twitter.com/GalraFloof)!


End file.
